


Shattered Time

by Cait_Sidhe



Series: Adventures with Luna [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, LOVECRAFT H. P. - Works
Genre: Adventure, F/M, Friendship, Horror, Locked In, Lovecraftian, Lovecraftian Monster(s), Mu (lost continent), Pre-Relationship, Temple, Time Travel, Time Turner (Harry Potter)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2020-03-08 04:11:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18886933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cait_Sidhe/pseuds/Cait_Sidhe
Summary: Luna reveals to Blaise that she took one of the broken time-turners from the Ministry, triggering an adventure through time that leads to a horrifying discovery.Inspired by the legend of K'naa found in the Black Book, which the narrator mentions in the story "Out of the Aeons" by H.P. Lovecraft and Hazel Heald.





	Shattered Time

**Author's Note:**

> This work was created for Hermione's Nook's Rare Pair Fest. My prompts were Luna/Blaise and Time Travel.
> 
> Story is inspired in part by HP Lovecraft and Hazel Heald's collaborative short story "Out of the Aeons".

 

“Hello.”

“Oh, hey,” Blaise Zabini, 7th-year Slytherin prefect, replied, absentmindedly turning the page of his book. Then, he did a double-take, turning towards the girl who had sat on the couch next to him, before turning to double-check his location.

“Is something the matter?” Luna Lovegood, 6th-year Ravenclaw, asked innocently, as the dark boy stared at her is disbelief.

“You do know where you are, right?”

Luna blinked at Blaise slowly, seemingly confused. “What do you mean?”

“Well, we’re in the Slytherin common room, and you’re a Ravenclaw,” Blaise told her patiently.

“Oh, so that’s why it’s so green in here.”

Blaise set his book aside and stood up. “Come on, let’s get you out of here before anyone else sees you.” Blaise held out his hand to help Luna up. She was lucky that it was only him here-- some of the other Slytherins would have been a lot less tolerant of someone encroaching upon their territory, especially when it was the girl well-known for being rather ditzy and strange.

Luna simply continued to stare at the boy.

Blaise sighed. “Suit yourself.” He sat back down and picked up his book once again; when he turned again to look at her, she was gone.

 

*******

 

Draco Malfoy nudged Blaise. They were eating breakfast, seated at the Slytherin table. Blaise ignored the boy, as usual; he had been trying to recruit people to the Death Eaters, but Blaise had no interest. There simply was nothing in it for him. Despite this, the blonde boy still annoyed him every morning with his spiel, and it was no different this morning; despite Baise’s lack of response, Malfoy continued to nudge him.

“What the hell, Malfoy,” hissed Blaise, extremely annoyed. “I’ve told you a million times, I’m not interested! We’re in school; I want to focus on that.”

“That wasn’t what I was going to say,” Malfoy said cooly.

“Yeah? Then what?”

“The Loony bird has been staring at you since you got here.”

“What?” Blaise glanced towards the Ravenclaw table. Luna was indeed staring at him, and smiled when she noticed him looking.

“Hmph. Maybe she has a crush on him,” Pansy parkinson remarked. “Hopeless, of course. Who needs such riff raff around when you can have someone like me?” Pansy blinked at Blaise suggestively, leaning up against him.

“Sod off, Pansy.” Blaise pushed her away. “I’ve told you before, I’m not interested.”

“Well, suit yourself. But seriously, don’t even try to go there. That girl is whack.”

“Yeah, her fashion alone is probably grounds for St Mungo’s,” Draco joked.

“Don’t worry, I know she’s crazy,” Blaise told them. He didn’t think the girl was actually out of her mind, rather just happened to be a little unusual, but they’d only tease more if they knew he thought that. So he played along.

 

*******

 

“Hello,” Luna said, sitting next to Blaise at the ebony-wood table in Slughorn’s office.

Blaise looked at the girl in bafflement. “Er. Are you supposed to be here?”

“Yes, she is,” the red-haired sixth-year Gryffindor, Ginny Weasley, spat. She never really had liked Blaise much from the start, most likely due to his house affiliation. “Just because her head is often in the clouds doesn’t mean she isn’t smart!”

“Okay, chill, I wasn’t saying anything like that,” Blaise replied coolly. “She wasn’t here last year, and Slughorn hadn’t said he’d be inviting new members this year, so I was making sure she hadn’t wandered in by mistake.”

“Yeah? And why would you care what she does?”

“I don’t. I was just curious,” Blaise said with a shrug.

“Oh, don’t worry Ginny, Blaise is nice,” Luna told her friend.

Ginny looked at Luna with a skeptical expression. “You’re not serious, are you?”

“I’m always serious. He’s a good person,” Luna insisted.

“But he’s a Slytherin!”

“Why does that matter?”

“Well… I guess that doesn’t, but he hangs out with Death Eaters! Probably is one himself.”

“No, that’s just self-preservation,” Luna explained. “Slytherins like staying out of trouble, and right now befriending Death Eaters is the best way to do that.”

“Luna, he’s always been friends with them.”

Well, that all certainly was true, minus the being a Death Eater part, Blaise thought, surprised at how Luna seemed to be defending him. As to the friendship, well, when you share a dorm with people, how can you not become friends? Plus even before Hogwarts he knew them, albeit not very well-- their parents often were at the same high-class social gatherings. It wasn’t like he agreed fully with Malfoy and his crew’s extreme ideas, but he certainly wasn’t going to openly disagree with them and be shunned. Staying friendly simply was the most logical option.

“You don’t have to agree with someone to be friends,” Luna said matter-of-factly. “I’m friends with many people who think the crumple-horned snorkack isn’t real.”

“That’s not the same thing,” Ginny said exasperatedly. Evidently they’d had similar conversations before.

“But--”

“Luna, drop it,” Blaise said, tired of this conversation. He’d had it before, many times. “There’s no point in trying to explain it to someone who refuses to listen.”

Luckily, Slughorn entered then, ending the conversation before the bristling Ginny could reply.

When the meeting was over, Blaise decided he’d talk to Luna some more to find out how she seemed to know so much about him when not even Malfoy had guessed that Blaise wasn’t fully invested in the politics currently dividing Britain’s wizarding world. However, when he turned to look, Luna was no longer there. Ginny too seemed a little confused at the disappearance of her friend, but Blaise wasn’t about to ask the redhead about it-- he’d prefer not to get into another pointless argument.

 

*******

 

Blaise snoozed by the lake, leaning against a tree with his Ancient Runes textbook in his lap. The day was cool and cloudy, with a hint of rain in the air, yet still warm enough to be considered pleasant for the mountainous region. He’d been working on a certain translation for a while, with just no luck-- NEWT-level Runes was much more difficult than expected, and it was only a few weeks in! So it was no wonder he started to drift off…

“That is not dead, which can eternal lie, and in strange eons, even death may die,” came a voice, then a small thud on the ground.

Blaise quickly sat up; his mom had taught him to always be alert when in public, yet he had been so negligent of that by falling asleep! He turned towards the sound, just to see a wide-eyed Luna sitting cross-legged and staring at him.

“Hello,” the girl said.

“Hi… er. What was that you were saying before? I didn’t catch it all.” From what he had caught, it sounded somewhat creepy, which was the opposite of Luna’s general demeanor.

“‘That is not dead, which can eternal lie, and in strange eons, eve death will die,” Luna quoted.

“And, er, what’s that supposed to mean?” Blaise asked, a little disconcerted.

“It says it right there.” Luna pointed to the textbook, which was open to the translation Blaise had been working on.

“How do you know that?” Blaise asked in wonder. “I thought you were only in the 6th year class.”

“I am. But that one is in R’lyeh. My mom taught me it when I was little.”

“Oh. Okay,” Blaise replied, wondering what kind of mom Luna had to have been taught such an obscure language and the corresponding runes before she’d even entered Hogwarts. “Does she speak it with you?” he asked.

“No, she died before I started school,” Luna said sadly, and Blaise felt a pang of sympathy. He knew how it was to lose a parent; although he hadn’t really bonded with any of his mom’s most recent husbands, thus had no feelings when they died, when he was little and unaware of his mom’s… profession, you could call it… he had become quite close to his biological father and his first stepfather. So he understood loss, even if he’d since become fairly desensitized to it.

“I’m sorry,” Blaise told her earnestly.

“It was a long time ago,” Luna responded, then changed the subject. “You need more help on your homework. I can help.”

“How’d you know I need help?”

“You have wrackspurts floating around you. Those only appear when people are confused, and since your homework it out, it must be due to that.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Blaise agreed; from general observation, it was best not to question the nonexistent creatures Luna believed in.

“But there’s something else, too…” Luna mused.

“Well, you are confusing me a little,” Blaise told the girl honestly. “Perhaps that’s why there’s extra… what you’d call them, wrackspurts?”

“How am I confusing you?”

“You seem to know a lot about me, what I’m thinking and feeling. Are you a legilimens? No, you can’t be; my occlumency is good enough that I’d sense that. So how…?”

“I told you; there’s lots of wrackspurts around you.”

“No, it’s more than that,” Blaise insisted. “I’ve been thinking about it; yesterday, at the Slug Club, you seemed to know things about me that I’ve never even confided in my friends about.”

“Well, you don’t have to tell me; it’s quite obvious,” Luna explained, and Blaise got the feeling that that was the best explanation he would get.

“So… what brings you here?” Blaise asked. “It’s a rather remote part of the lake.”

“I was just wandering around.”

It was then Blaise noticed one of the necklaces around Luna’s neck, quite out of place compared to the other ones paired with it, which were made of things like gurdyroot, dried onions, flowers, and even one that looked like it was made of some sort of tiny bones. This necklace, in contrast, was made entirely of what appeared to be actual gold, a fine chain that ended in a circle about two inches in diameter. Within the circle was an hourglass, made of quartz with rose-colored sand filling it that appeared as though it were able to rotate.

Luna noticed him studying the necklace. “Do you like it?” she asked. “The gurdyroot helps ward off wrackspurts. I can make you one if you like.”

Blaise blinked in brief confusion. Apparently she couldn’t read everything about people, like it usually seemed. “Er. Actually, I was looking at the gold one, not the gurdyroot one.”

“Oh, this! Isn’t it pretty? I took it when we were at the Ministry. It was broken, so I figured that was okay.”

“It doesn’t look broken,” Blaise commented. He didn’t question the Ministry comment; everyone at Hogwarts knew that two summers ago Luna and some others had gone with Harry Potter there, where they fought a battle in the Department of Mysteries… which probably meant the necklace was not a normal necklace.

“Oh, that’s because I fixed it, mostly,” Luna told him. “The cracks are gone, at least.”

“Does it do anything special?”

“Well, it sometimes makes me go back in time a little, or transports me places. It’s hard to say exactly what it will do.”

“But you wear it anyway?” Blaise asked incredulously. Could that be a fabelled time-turner?

“Yes, it’s pretty, isn’t it?”

“Well, I suppose so, but that’s still dangerous-- if it’s randomly transporting you places, it’s just a matter of time before you end up somewhere bad.”

“No, I think it’s fine.” Luna seemed awfully nonchalant about this, Blaise thought.

“If you say so… hey, have you tried using it intentionally?” the boy asked.

“Intentionally? No, I never thought to.”

“Really? Well, that’s good. You don’t know what it’ll do-- it may be fixed aesthetically, but it definitely is still broken if it’s uncontrollable.”

“But we don’t know if it’s uncontrollable,” Luna pointed out. “Do you think we should try it out to be sure?”

“No!”

“Yes, I think we’ll do that…” Luna stood up.

“Luna, wait, that’s a very bad idea!” Blaise shouted, jumping up to his feet as well.

But the girl ignored him. “We’re going to go on an adventure,” she said matter-of-factly.

“Wait, we?” Blaise looked around. It was only the two of them, which meant…

Luna grabbed his arm, and spun the hourglass three times.

 

*******

 

“Ugh, where are we?” Blaise moaned, sitting up. His head pounded; he seemed to have been knocked unconscious. Last he remembered, Luna has spun the time-turner… that’s right, Luna! Blaise stood up quickly, causing a slight dizziness. A jungle? How were they in a jungle? Hold on… where was the blonde girl? Did they get separated? And his wand! Where was his wand?

“Oh good, you’re awake,” said Luna, as she came out of the thick brush. She wasn’t alone.

“Who’s that?” Blaise asked, when she failed to introduce the ancient-looking man. “And where exactly are we?”

“This is A’shaa’o,” Luna told him. “We’re nearby the kingdom of K’naa.”

“K’naa? Never heard of it.”

“Really? I thought everyone had. It’s on the continent of Mu.”

“Mu? Isn’t that fictional, like Atlantis?”

“No, Mu is real. So is Atlantis.”

A’shaa’o muttered something to Luna in a tongue Blaise didn’t recognize, to which Luna replied in the same language.

“What’s he saying?” Blaise wondered, with much wariness. Was Luna correct in saying this was Mu, the fictional lost continent said to have perished in ten-thousand BC? If so, that meant they had travelled at least twelve-thousand years back! That was completely impossible, even with magic… or was it?

“He’s saying we should head towards the city before it gets dark,” Luna translated.

“Right. Makes sense, I suppose. Hey, have you seen my wand?”

“Yes, it’s right here.” Luna handed Blaise his wand. “I didn’t want it to get lost.”

As they followed A’shaa’o through the jungle, Blaise marvelled at their surroundings. They were in a jungle, but it was unlike any jungle of which Blaise had read or seen photos. Some of the trees seemed familiar to those of the rainforests of their era, such as the tall knotted trunks with broad leaves rife with vines and hanging mosses, but others were entirely foreign, such as the tall pine-like trees with mauve needles that would have been out of place even in the vast Northeastern American pine forests, let alone a jungle. The underbrush was thick in some parts, but almost absent in others; even so, they had to wade through strange ferns and grasses, snagging their robes on brambles and wondering if there were any insects, snakes, or other such dangerous creatures that they might fall victim to, although thus far they’d seen nothing but plant life. There were no trail markers, but A’shaa’o seemed to know perfectly where to go, as though he’d travelled this place a thousand times.

Soon the jungle thinned until they were walking across dry heath pocketed with pools of seaweed-filled water, a sprawling city in the distance beneath tall basalt mountains. The tallest black mountain looked like there might have been a temple on its peak, but it was too far away to properly tell. Now that they could better see the sky, Blaise noted that the sun indeed was tickling the horizon. Dark clouds could be seen in the distance, fast approaching.

A’shaa’o spoke a bit to Luna, who again translated for Blaise. “We need to hurry; there will be lightning storms tonight, so we’ll need to get indoors.”

“Is there a place for us to stay?” Luna asked A’shaa’o, who looked at Luna as though he couldn’t believe she’d ask such a silly question.

“Of course,” the bearded K’naa native replied. “The Church always has rooms for travellers, regardless of city,” The man started walking faster while glancing at the clouds; Luna and Blaise picked up their pace, too.

“So, where are we?” Blaise asked Luna, as they approached the city.

“I told you, Mu. That city is K’naa.”

“Right. So, the more important question: when are we?”

“Well, that’s hard to say, isn’t it? They don’t use our calendar.”

“Yes, but don’t you have some kind of estimate? You seem to know the language, so that must give some clue.”

“Oh! Yes, I suppose it does. I’d say… 100,000 BC.”

“What?” Blaise exclaimed. “No possible way. You’re joking.”

“Why would I be joking?”

At this point, the group reached the city, and all conversation halted. A’shaa’o led Luna and Blaise through the most fantastical, strange city the two wizards had ever known. Buildings of all shapes, sizes, and colors lined wide streets. Visages of strange creatures and deities were painted on many walls and carved into stone effigies. People clad in a hodgepodge of clothing made of strange hides and fabrics, seemingly without regards to any fashion judging by the variety in design, could be seen bringing things inside and taking laundry off clotheslines in preparation for the coming storm, of which winds were beginning to whistle. According to A’shaa’o, there were over ten-thousand people residing here, and this was one of the smaller cities! Luna seemed unphased, but Blaise marvelled at it wide-eyed. Had they truly been transported a hundred-thousand years ago on a lost continent? If so, historians and archaeologists had a lot wrong about early human civilization.

The people of K’naa were also different than Blaise had ever seen, either in-person or in books. Their skin was dark like his, but they were stouter, their eyes bulged, noses flared out, and their jawlines were nearly flat compared to that of the modern human of their era; in fact, their resemblance to the subspecies of human Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, commonly known as the Neanderthal, was uncanny. Which actually did make sense, Blaise realized, as Homo sapiens sapiens, the species of human Blaise and Luna belonged to, would not actually spread worldwide for another forty thousand years, if they had even developed enough yet to be classified as a unique subspecies at all. Yes, historians and archaeologists were definitely incorrect about the development of human life-- they had relegated Neanderthals to barely more cognizant than gorillas, yet here they were creating entire civilizations. Blaise wondered what had happened to cause such a society to vanish so thoroughly. Perhaps only Mu and other such lost continents thought to be fantasy had developed cities like this, with the rest still being populated by hunter-gatherers, similar to how Europe, Asia, and other areas had been developed for thousands of years while those in the northern Americas and other lands were still migrant.

Periodically they came across large marble houses, which A’shaa’o explained were for the priests, who seemed to have been granted extravagant luxuries few others had. The priests seemed to be the rulers of this place, from what Blaise gathered. He didn’t want to ask too much though, since, as Luna pointed out in a strange moment of insight, seeming to know too little about the country might look awfully suspicious.

Soon they reached a copper temple marked by a towering statue of what appeared to be an anthropomorphic goat. A thin man with greying hair greeted them, whom A’shaa’o identified as T’yog, High-Priest of Shub-Niggurath. T’yog welcomed the travellers, and, once bidding A’shaa’o farewell, led them to some simple chambers on an upper floor of the extravagant palace-like church, with the promise that a servant would soon be bringing them a meal.

“Right,” Blaise said, once T’yog had left. “We need to figure out how to get back. You still have the time-turner, correct? And a wand?”

“Do you not have your wand?” Luna questioned.

“No, I must have lost it somewhere,” Blaise admitted.

“Well, that’s no good. I can’t find mine either.”

Blaise raised his eyebrows in surprise. They had both lost their wands? That was worrisome. Come to think of it…

“Luna, do they know we’re wizards? Did you tell them?”

“No, why?”

“Losing both wands can’t be a coincidence. Maybe they took them.”

“Why would they? They’re wizards too.”

This was news to Blaise. “How can you tell?”

“Well, they’re using athenian fire for lighting, and the bathroom uses devices enhanced with aguamenti charms. So they’re either wizards themselves or this society is accepting of magic enough to incorporate it into their daily lives.”

“But I didn’t notice anyone using magic when going through town.”

“Well, in ancient societies wizards often were of the ruling class. The priests, like T’yog, most likely are magical, with wizards most likely in all the high positions. We mostly seemed to walk through more pedestrian areas.” Luna seemed to be extremely knowledgeable about everything, despite the fact that her head was nearly always in the clouds, Blaise realized. There was little doubt she was a Ravenclaw. What other interesting topics did she know about? Blaise decided he’d like to explore that once they returned to their time.

“So, if T’yog is magical, he might be able to help us find our wands, or know where we can get some,” Blaise reasoned, strolling over to the door and turning the handle. The door didn’t budge; Blaise tugged at it some more, hoping that it was just stuck, before concluding it was locked. He banged on the door. “Hello?” he shouted. “Anyone there? We’re locked in!”

“Blaise, stop it,” Luna said calmly. “If they’ve locked us in, they’re not going to come running just because of some shouting.”

“How are you so calm?!”

“Well, there’s simply no use getting overexcited,” Luna told him. “Being angry won’t change the fact that we’re locked in. We’ll just have to blitz the servant when they come in, that’s all. Then we can escape.”

Blaise was surprised the usually gentle Luna had jumped straight to such a violent plan. “You can be somewhat scary sometimes…”

“Really? No one has told me that before.”

The two resigned themselves to waiting in the room; someone had to come in eventually, and they could escape once they did, as Luna had suggested. Luna sat on the edge of the bed humming to herself and fidgeting with her hair, while Blaise paced near the door, ready to attack when it opened.

CRACK. The two jumped. A house-elf appeared in the room, carrying a large tray of food. The elf introduced herself as Hippy, left the tray on a small table that had appeared along with two chairs, and then left with another CRACK.

“Well, so much for that plan,” Blaise said forlornly. “Can’t escape if they don’t use the door.”

“It’s okay,” Luna told him. “The elf will be back later; perhaps we could ask her some questions about why we’re locked in. For now, let us eat.”

Blaise’s stomach grumbled in response, and the two sat down at the table to find an array of foods, most of which the nature they were unsure of, along with chopsticks and spoons. After Luna amusedly watched Blaise struggle to use only the spoon, she helped teach him to properly to use the chopsticks, albeit he still dropped things frequently. There were what looked like fried giant grubs, seaweed cakes, braised lizards, pickled oranges, and other unusual things they were wary to try, with spices neither of them could place, but their hunger compelled them to eat. They were glad they did, as there was no denying the food was unexpectedly delicious and plentiful.

Soon after they finished, Hippy returned to collect the tray. Before the elf could disappear, Blaise grabbed her by the ear, preventing her from moving. “Why have we been locked in?” he demanded.

The elf replied in the strange language, not understanding the question. Luna therefore asked it again, discussing things with the elf, looks of sadness, surprise, and fear crossing her face. Eventually, the elf left, and Luna explained to Blaise what the elf had told her.

“According to Hippy, we’re to be sacrifices,” Luna said sadly.

“Sacrifices? You mean…”

“Yes, they plan to kill us, along with twenty-two others. Each year they sacrifice a dozen girls and a dozen boys to their dark god Ghatanothoa, on the altar of flame near the foot of the mountain Yaddith-Gho, so that it is satiated enough that it will not leave its temple atop the peak, as anyone who views it is paralyzed completely, living for eternity trapped fully conscious in their own frozen bodies.”

Blaise looked at Luna for a long moment. “You’re joking,” he said, although by Luna’s grim look he knew she wasn’t.

“Unfortunately, no,” Luna forlornly confirmed.

“Well, then, we have to fix the time turner; they didn’t take that, did they?”

“No, that’s more difficult to take, being around my neck. Also, I don’t think they knew what it was. Time Turners were only created a few centuries ago, our time that is, and are very rare.”

“Not rare; unique. You have the only one left,” Blaise pointed out.

“Currently, yes. But more can always be created, given time, provided the concept and theory still exist. Maybe we could make one.”

“How about we just get to fixing this one first,” Blaise suggested.

“Okay. Don’t we need our wands though?”

“Well, it got us here, so the magic itself seems to be intact; maybe it’ll be just a matter of fixing the mechanical bits. It looks like you succeeded in fixing it aesthetically, but some of the parts are probably still askew or disconnected. It seems to have a lot of tiny gears and things woven in.”

Luna looked a little doubtful, but agreed that they should at least try; after all, what could possibly go wrong? It wasn’t as though they were messing with the magic itself.

A lot could evidently go wrong, as always tends to be the case with that question. Just as they seemed to be making a bit of progress, the time-turner began to rumble-- a warning before letting out a shock wave that slammed the two back against the wall. It was a miracle neither of them were injured, other than a few bruises. However, there was a slight silver lining to that mishap…

“The door!” Blaise exclaimed. “Look, it’s slightly askew!”

Luna, who was closest to the door, attempted to open it; the lock, unfortunately, still held fast. The one hinge was broken, and from the gap could be seen that it actually was not a lock, rather a long metal bar across it, so trying to break or pick it was out of the question.

“What do we do now?” Blaise wondered. It seemed as though there was nothing that could be done.

“The door is cracked,” Luna noted. “See? By the broken hinge. If we apply enough force, we may be able to break it off, and then I can probably fit through the gap.”

Blaise raised his eyebrows. Break the door? That was, once again, a pretty bold suggestion; perhaps Luna’s Gryffindor friends had rubbed off on her.

Since bare hands obviously wouldn’t work, the two looked for something to pry it open with. Blaise was ready to smash a chair when Luna realized the table legs could be easily unscrewed. She wedged one in the door gap, and together they pushed it like a lever, which successfully cracked the corner of the door enough for Luna to slip through with some help from Blaise. The bar had been threaded through eyelets attached to both the the wall and door, luckily there was no additional lock, so Luna easily slid it out to open the door for Blaise. Dawn was fast approaching, but neither felt tired at all as they began to quietly creep through the silent temple, looking for an exit.

Instead of an exit, they found T’yog.

This was, as the two soon discovered, actually fairly lucky; of all the priests, T’yog was the most sympathetic to their situation. He apologized for holding them, explaining that he had had no choice, as that was what A’shaa’o had commanded. He may have been a High Priest himself, but he only resided over the temple of Shub-Niggurath, a deity considered lesser than the dark god Ghatanothoa, the most prominent deity of the land and of whom A’shaa’o was one of the High Priests. Because Luna and Blaise were outsiders, whose appearances were akin to the strange heretics found across the seas, it had been decided that they would make good sacrifices.

However, T’yog was confident that such soon would not be necessary. He had come to believe that instead of sacrificing twenty-four people a year, the dark deity could be properly subdued with the powers of the friendly gods Shub-Niggurath, Nug, Yeb, and Yig the Serpent. Unfortunately, this had angered the priests of Ghatanothoa, who refused to even listen to what they deemed a heretical proposal, claiming it would fail and bring the malignant god’s wrath upon them. T’yog suspected that the true reason was more akin to a fear of losing their power and riches-- fortunately, the populace supported Ghatanothoa’s dethroning, as did King Thabon, so the High Priests could do little to prevent T’yog from carrying out his plan. Currently, he was preparing to journey up the treacherous basalt mountain, where he would bring an enchanted scroll, designed to harness the powers of the good gods, to the temple atop Yaddith-Gho, where Ghatanothoa resided; there he would use the incantations upon the scroll to summon the friendly gods and defeat the evil god once and for all.

“Oh, that sounds fun!” Luna proclaimed, once he had finished explaining all this. “Let us help you.”

“Help him? Help him with what?” Blaise asked; the two others had been so engrossed in conversation they had forgotten Blaise could not understand.

Luna explained to him the situation.

“What? Why would we help with that?” Blaise asked in response. “We’re supposed to be trying to get home!”

“Oh, right. T’yog says maybe he can help with that, too. Once the nice gods are summoned, he’ll ask them to fix the time-turner.”

“You told him about that? Luna! What if he’d responded negatively!”

“But he didn’t.”

Blaise sighed. “I suppose. What’s done is done. But, you know these gods don’t exist, right?”

Luna looked at Blaise, wide-eyed with head slightly tilted. “How do you know that?”

“Well, because… well, they just can’t. If they did, why haven’t we heard of them?”

“Well, we are 170,000 years in the past. Perhaps they died out.”

Blaise looked at Luna skeptically. “I guess that is possible… wait, didn’t you last say it was 100k?”

“170 sounds closer to the truth. I’m not sure how I know. Maybe I read it somewhere? This story seems familiar.”

“Right, if you say so…”

“I do say so. Now, let’s go kill a god!”

Blaise looked at Luna, again surprised. Yes, she definitely could be scary at times-- very few people would be that cheerful at the prospect of killing a god, evil or not.

 

*******

 

“That’s the temple?” Blaise panted, tremendously exhausted after scaling the treacherous mountain. Wizards were not meant for such arduous things! They had magic to do most physical things that would otherwise build strength. Although, come to think of it, most muggles wouldn’t be able to easily climb the steep basalt cliffs of Yaddith-Gho, either, especially because they had needed magic to blast away rock in some places. Blaise was glad T’yog had returned their wands; he had felt utterly lost without his.

“What else would it be?” Luna responded.

“It’s… weird, isn’t it?”

“What’s weird about it?”

“It’s… well, I can’t quite put my finger on it. Something is very off about this place. Do we really need to go inside it?”

“If we want to go home, then yes,” Luna confirmed with certainty.

Thus, they entered the foreboding shrine of Ghatanothoa. It was dark, so they all immediately cast lumos. Well, Luna and Blaise did; T’yog uttered something else, but it caused the same effect, making the tip of his tlath-wood staff light up.

Something definitely was strange about this place. The geometry seemed off somehow, even more so than it had appeared from the outside. Up was down, down was left, straight was backwards, left was backwards, down was straight. Nothing seemed to make sense, although despite this their path somehow slowly snaked down into the depths of the temple, which seemed to go much deeper into the mountain than expected. Yes, it felt like something truly was sealed within here, and Blaise definitely didn’t want to find out what. Unfortunately, he didn’t have much of a choice in the matter if he wanted to return home with Luna. Besides, Luna was very enthusiastic about this, and Blaise didn’t want to risk their newfound friendship by denying her her chance to fight a god.

After what felt like aeons-- and maybe it was, for even time seemed off in this place-- they reached a large chamber with a door in the floor, like that of a crypt. It was carven with various symbols Blaise had never seen prior, and which kept changing. There was something profoundly terrifying about that door; it was undeniable that the malignant god Ghatanothoa lay beneath it.

“Well, let’s get this over with, then,” Blaise said, attempting to sound nonchalant but utterly failing to conceal his fright. Shadows seemed to dance on the walls, their wandlight reflecting off things that weren’t there.

“Maybe we shouldn’t,” Luna said, her voice shaking. “I have a really bad feeling about this.” She said something to T’yog in his language, presumably the same thing.

T’yog shook his head, and replied shortly, a determined look on his face that Blaise didn’t need translation for. They were doing this, for better or for worse. T’yog took out the enchanted scroll, and began to chant the incantation.

The entire place shook, as though an earthquake were occurring. T’yog looked nervous, then panicked-- finally he stopped reading mid-sentence as they all watched in horror: the door to the crypt began to slowly open. Something had gone seriously wrong.

From the crypt began to emerge something wholly terrible. Gigantic, tentacled, probiscian, semi-amorphous, nauseating, squamous, rugose, loathsome, unholy… nothing could properly describe the spawn of midnight chaos this thing embodied, and they had only seen a tiny portion emerge thus far!

Suddenly, Blaise remembered something T’yog had mentioned before about Ghatanothoa-- if it looked at you, you were paralyzed for eternity. They needed to escape before the thing fully emerged. He grabbed Luna’s arm and began to run, only to realize the only doorway had been blocked by black shadows-- the previously invisible things the wandlight had reflected off of earlier-- of which were growing to cover the entire room, oozing across the floor, ceiling, walls, and whatever the strange fourth surface was in this non-euclidean room.

It was hopeless; they were going to die, or worse.

Luna squeaked in fear, grabbing Blaise and burying her face in his chest. He put his arms around the girl, in a last-ditch effort to protect her… the thing was emerging further, and T’yog, across the room from them, appeared to already be frozen… Blaise closed his eyes, hoping beyond hope that Ghatanothoa would kill them instead of subjecting them to eternity trapped within their own paralyzed bodies…

But death never came, nor paralysis. After what felt like hours, Blaise finally opened his eyes, terrified of seeing the frightful thing in front of him. Yet it wasn’t there.

“Luna… I think we’re home…” Blaise whispered, once his bearings were restored. “Look, we’re in the forest; Hogwarts can be seen in the distance.”

Luna uncurled herself from Blaise’s chest, looking around yet still clutching his robes. The time-turner around her neck was completely shattered.

 

*******

 

Blaise lazed in the shade of a tree by the lake, watching the giant squid play frisbee with some first-years. He tried not to think about the horror of a few weeks prior, but it was tremendously difficult. Maybe talking to his mother would help; he hadn’t wanted to put what had happened in a letter, as all of Hogwarts’ incoming and outgoing mail was now being searched, but would definitely be telling her about it when he returned home for Christmas in a few days.

Soon, Luna approached, and sat down next to him. She’d been hanging out with him a lot lately; something about a shared terrifying adventure tends to bring people closer together.

Luna held out a book to Blaise.

“What’s this?” he asked warily. The book looked somewhat foreboding.

“I told you I thought it seemed familiar,” Luna told him. “See? It was in this book!”

Blaise tepidly took the book from Luna. “Nameless Cults by von Juntz,” he read. He knew of this book; it described many dark cults and the beings they worshipped, most extinct since the book’s publication but others still going strong. It was one of those rare books one only heard rumors about, like the dreaded Necronomicon or De Vermis Mysteriis, albeit not quite as dreadful as those two. It was surprising that Luna, of all people, would have a copy. “You were reading this?”

“Yes, I found it in my trunk last year, although I don’t remember putting it there; unread books are sad, so I had to read it. Look, it has the whole history of Ghatanothoa’s cult, from its founding to now. The story of T’yog trying to vanquish it is in here, although it’s a bit inaccurate.”

“Understandable, as it probably was passed down orally for… wow. According to this, T’yog’s journey took place in 173,148 BC.”

“Yes, stories of the Great Old Ones tend to last for eternity,” Luna said, a distant look in her eye. “They’re fascinating, aren’t they?”

“Er. I wouldn’t call Ghatanothoa ‘fascinating’ so much as utterly terrifying,” Blaise replied.

“Well, things can be both terrifying and fascinating, can’t they?”

“I suppose… bloody hell!” Blaise proclaimed in surprise upon reading further. “That’s why the spell didn’t work! Those priests switched the scrolls! T’yog was reading the wrong incantation!”

Luna nodded forlornly. “So it seems. It’s too bad; I would have liked to meet those friendly gods.”

Blaise contemplated that for a moment. “Well, why don’t we?”

Luna smiled playfully. “I thought you said they couldn’t possibly exist?” she teased.

“Well, encountering something tends to change one’s mind on whether or not it exists.”

“Very true,” Luna agreed. “Now, we just need a copy of the Necronomicon…”

“...Of which there’s only half a dozen copies left,” Blaise pointed out.

“Oh, don’t worry about that. My mother owned a copy; she was using it when she died. It’s somewhere in my house. I can pick it up over Christmas break.”

“Sounds good. Hey, right after break, there’s a Hogsmeade weekend, you know. Perhaps we can discuss the book over butterbeer?”

“Oh!” Luna’s eyes lit up. “Yes, that sounds nice. Should I invite others?”

Blaise’s cheeks darkened slightly. “Actually, I was hoping it could just be the two of us… is that okay?”

Luna’s smile shone as bright and pure as a unicorn’s horn. “Yes, I think I would very much like that.”

**Author's Note:**

> To read more about T'yog and the cult of Ghatanothoa, you can read Lovecraft and Heald's short story in full, free thanks to public domain, at http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/oa.aspx.


End file.
